How to Pronounce WORCESTERSHIRE AMERICAN ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION
In this American English pronunciation video,
we’re going to go over how to pronounce this.
Every once in a while, there’s a word that’s
hard for Americans to pronounce as well. For
example, I’m here in LA at the Tastemade studios,
and I’ve been watching a few friends recording
some cooking shows.
So we need, now, I can never say this,
worcestershire.
I say worcestershire.
Worcestershire? Ok, we’ll go with that.
We should ask Rachel from Rachel’s English
later on.
Yes. How to say that properly.
A little bit of worcestershire sauce.
Or worcestershire.
Wor-, or worcestershire? Nobody really
knows how to pronounce it.
We don’t know.
We need to talk to Rachel.
As you can see, they’re not quite sure how
to pronounce this word, so, let’s go over
it. This is one of the few cases where we’re
actually retaining British English pronunciation.
This sauce was first made in city of Worcester,
England. ‘Shire’ is the British equivalent
to our counties here in America, so this sauce
is simply named for region from which it comes,
Worcestershire, where ‘shire’ sounds just
like the state name ‘New Hampshire’.
So, we drop the first R, and the vowel in
that syllable is the UH as in PUSH vowel,
wo-, wo-. So the lips will start in a tight
circle, and then they’ll relax a bit out.
But we still want a little bit of round for
that vowel. Wo-, wo-. This is the stressed
syllable. Then we have two unstressed syllables,
-stershire, -stershire, so they can be lower
in pitch and quicker. So we have the ST consonant
cluster, worcest-, -st-, so your teeth need
to come together for the S sound, tongue will
go to the roof of the mouth for the T, worcestershire.
Now, the second two syllables have the schwa.
So, we need basically no jaw drop for those.
Worcestershire, -stershire. To make the SH
sound between the two -er- sounds, the tongue
will come forward a little bit. But the tongue
tip still doesn’t need to be touching anything.
And your teeth will stay together, sh. And
your lips will flare. Worcestershire. So,
it’s just three syllables. DA-da-da. Worcestershire.
Don’t pronounce that first R, and also make
sure you put the schwa in the last syllable.
Some people will want to say ‘shire’, but
just like the state ‘New Hampshire’, -shire,
-shire, it’s a schwa in that last syllable.
I also appeared on the cooking show Hilah
Cooking, so click here to see that video.
We made yummy Long Island Iced Teas. Also,
click here to see the two videos of recipes
that call for Worcestershire sauce, now that
you can confidently pronounce that word. All
the links are also in the video description.
That’s it, and thanks so much for using
Rachel’s English.